Pardoned Black Expatriate Meets His Sentencing Judge

Nearly four decades after he fled to England to avoid 18 months in prison for draft evasion, Preston King met Friday with the judge who sentenced him and recently pushed for a presidential pardon on his behalf.

“I think it is important for people to see that we do not detest each other,” said King, who had lunch Friday at the home of retired U.S. District Judge William A. Bootle, 97. “I want to salute Judge Bootle for his strength of character.”

King, 63, now a professor of political science at Britain’s Lancaster University, fled his Albany, Ga., home in 1961 after refusing induction into the Army because the all-white draft board wouldn’t address him as “Mr.” as they did whites.

King did not return to the United States until Wednesday, two days after President Clinton pardoned him so he could attend the funeral of his brother, Clennon W. King Jr. Bootle’s recommendation that King be pardoned was a deciding factor for Clinton.

The judge said King’s trial and sentencing was carried out in accordance with the law. But he said King had suffered enough by missing the funerals of his parents and three brothers, and he has compared King to other blacks who stood up during the civil rights movement.

“Someone asked me why I changed my mind. There’s no inconsistency between imposing a sentence and favoring a pardon,” Bootle said. Back in those days, “I was just learning that it was appropriate to say mister to a black person.”

When King and another family member arrived at Bootle’s house, the judge greeted them from his front steps: “Mr. Preston King, welcome back to America and to my home. Do you remember me?”

King replied, “I remember you.”